Festival of 9 Lessons & Carols, King's College Cambridge 2013

[Magnificat]

Indeed. In days gone by it used to end at "and thou shalt bruise his heel", which I thought was better...and less taxing. But it held no terrors for today's reader.

I always enjoy hearing the choristers read the first lesson they are invariably brilliant at it. No doubt they are well coached but the AV lessons are real tongue twisters at the best of times.

Also I love to listen to Richard Lloyd - Morgan, the Chaplain, on the TV broadcast. His reading is always a joy.

As regards the service, how can it ever be changed. The format is unbeatable and the variety of Christmas carols/songs and arrangements is not bettered anywhere.

Also there is no procession traipsing around the building throughout. You can just sit and listen to the choir sing.

VCC.

[mercia]

the AV lessons are real tongue twisters at the best of times

yes, and IMV that lesson doth soundeth rather silly. Wouldest it not be a goodly idea verily to slightly tweakest it into more uptodate English, thinkest not thee ?

[MickyD]

That's the one. Many thanks.

In case you don't know, the same artists also did a sequel of Georgian Christmas music, which is just as rousing and fascinating.

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67443

[Mr Stoat]

I wonder what Sir David W thinks of Cleobury leaving out his organum-type accompaniment to the Herod verse of Unto Us each year. I'd be a bit peeved - to my mind it's the most exciting part.

Very exciting, certainly! I wonder though whether there is a practical reason for omitting it? The congregation get a definite 4 crotchets in the accompaniment for verses 1 & 2; could they be guaranteed to maintain that beat with the organ on a static semibreve chord, followed by minim chords? Could result in chaos! Just a thought....!

[ardcarp]

Wouldest it not be a goodly idea verily to slightly tweakest it into more uptodate English, thinkest not thee ?

Methinks it soundeth like chaynge.

[mercia]

Methinks it soundeth like chaynge.

indeed a big change, and I realise not likely to happen
I do just find a couple of sentences in that lesson rather silly-sounding - tongue-twisters as has been said

Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
What is this that thou hast done?

[Nick Armstrong]

indeed a big change, and I realise not likely to happen
I do just find a couple of sentences in that lesson rather silly-sounding - tongue-twisters as has been said

Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
What is this that thou hast done?

I've always liked that, a sort of archaic headmasterly tone...

The line that's always made me giggle (and wonder what the Hades it means - no bad thing in itself) is

And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

[mercia]

And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

yes, that's almost Rambling Syd Rumpo territory - wiki is interesting on the cockatrice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice

[Chris Watson]

Don't know if this will work, but if it does it is a page from Boyce's Own that I was first introduced to by Alan Thurlow when I was the choir librarian in Durham. Never sung it though!

[mercia]

it worked

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

it worked

[ardcarp]

Surely one of the glories of the Anglican church is to hear (during the course of CE perhaps) some ageing cleric, in a voice devoid of emotion, reciting lists of Hebrew genealogies, tales of fire, brimstone, sodomy and revenge; not to mention the more arcane aspects of Levitical (is there such a word?) sacrifices, rituals and legal practices. All so relevant to our everyday lives.

[VodkaDilc]

Very exciting, certainly! I wonder though whether there is a practical reason for omitting it? The congregation get a definite 4 crotchets in the accompaniment for verses 1 & 2; could they be guaranteed to maintain that beat with the organ on a static semibreve chord, followed by minim chords? Could result in chaos! Just a thought....!

(This is referring to the Willcocks Unto Us)
In forty + years of 'doing' that arrangement with school and adult choirs and congregations, I've never come across that problem. Surely the possibly more musically aware congregation at King's could cope.
The real minefield is the next verse, where the first word of the third line has to come in early and take a beat from the previous line ("And oh that Mary's little child"). Starting with "And" on the first beat of the bar can result in dreadful confusion by the end of the line.

[Vox Humana]

There's just one word to describe SC descants: messy. Though on reflection "embarrassing" springs to mind also.

Don't forget "pretentious". I'm sorry to twist the knife so uncharitably, but, really, a four-square hymn tune under full throttle just isn't the place to introduce a fretting fugue sung by a flock of twittering sparrows. With descants it really is a case of "less is more". The best ones I know all succeed because they produce something striking and arresting within an economy of means. Often they stay more or less note-for-note with the tune. Descants that try to be cleverly contrapuntal, cutting across the rhythm of the melody (often with heart-sinking delayed entries), invariably fail big time. A good descant enhances the tune. It partners it; it doesn't fight against it or demand primacy. It says, "What a wonderful hymn tune this is", not "What a good boy am I."

[Mr Stoat]

(This is referring to the Willcocks Unto Us)
In forty + years of 'doing' that arrangement with school and adult choirs and congregations, I've never come across that problem. Surely the possibly more musically aware congregation at King's could cope.
The real minefield is the next verse, where the first word of the third line has to come in early and take a beat from the previous line ("And oh that Mary's little child"). Starting with "And" on the first beat of the bar can result in dreadful confusion by the end of the line.

I missed it this year, but is not that verse usually choir-only (presumably for that very reason?) Apologies for my daft idea re v.3